The Unlikely Fate of the Wright Brothers

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2021

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio changed history. The Wright Brothers took the world's first engine-powered flight. It didn't take long for countries around the world to realise that the Wright flying machine had the potential to revolutionise warfare and soon everybody wanted flying machines of their own. But the US didn't have the advantage; Historian and TV Consultant Gavin Mortimer tells Dan that after that first flight, the Wright Brothers spent more time in court trying to protect their patent and ground other aviators than they did in their workshop. Not only did it make them largely despised by their contemporaries, they quickly fell behind in the race to master the air.

For more about those dramatic days of pioneering aviation, Gavin's book is called 'Chasing Icarus: The Seventeen Days in 1910 That Changing American Aviation'

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, welcome to Downsnow's History. It's a big anniversary. You know I love an
0:03.9	anniversary. It's down aversory snow on the line here. This is a big anniversary today.
0:08.3	In 1903 on the 17th of December, the Wright brothers took their first heavier than air
0:13.2	flight, revolutionising the world as we know it. I mean, imagine that there are people
0:17.3	alive today whose parents lived in an era before heavier than air travel. It is extraordinary.
0:24.8	We are accelerating folks. We are on a mad journey that began with someone accidentally
0:29.2	discovering some bronze and a pretty hot fire. Anyway, and it is getting faster and
0:33.6	faster. What is going to happen next? I don't know, but we've now got over 120 years
0:37.9	of heavier than air travel. This podcast is all about that moment. It's all about the
0:41.1	Wright brothers and how their contemporaries did not like them very much. As they spent
0:45.7	more time fighting over their patent, suing people and grounding other aviators, then they
0:51.4	actually did working out what the next generation of aircraft was to master the race for the
0:55.8	air. So this is a weird story. The Wright brothers, the Titches, they gave up inventing
1:01.1	to sue people. Not a good look. They were the two successful American aviation pioneers.
1:07.2	They built and they flew the world's first successful engine operated aeroplane. They
1:14.6	made the first controlled sustained flight of a powered flying machine, the right fly
1:20.4	out on the 17th of December, Kitty Hawking North Carolina. They were the first to invent
1:26.8	aircraft controls. So they made fixed wing powered flight possible. And that first aircraft,
1:32.9	which I love, I just love going to this museum. It's one of the famous museums in the
1:35.8	world. It's the National Air and Space Museum at Smithsonian. That first aircraft is preserved
1:41.0	there. In this podcast, I'm going to tell you all about that fateful day. I'm also going
1:46.0	to interview Gavin Mortimer. He is the author of Chasing Icarus. That is just about early
	...

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